Endotracheal tubes are the principal means by which anesthesia and oxygen are administered to patients requiring secured airways or mechanical ventilation. Traditional endotracheal and tracheostomy tube cuffs are essentially balloons positioned around a tracheal tube. As illustrated in FIG. 1 (labeled “prior art”) in previously known endotracheal tubes 100, an inflation conduit is partially embedded in the wall of the tracheal tube, running from the cuff up the side of the endotracheal tube. At the top, the inflation conduit is sealed with a valve or adapter at the inflation port to which a syringe connects for inflation of the cuff. The balloon is inflated after the tube is inserted into the trachea to seal the airway and prevent air leak around the tube and out the mouth or nose.
Traditionally, cuffed tubes often require periodic re-inflation. They suffer from problems with air leaking either out of the cuff or within the airway around the cuff, and risk of over-inflation, which may result in tracheal mucosal ischemia and injury. Vigilant monitoring of conventional endotracheal tubes is required because minimal deflation of the balloon can unseal the airway thereby allowing air to leak. The “air leak” effectively decreases the volume of each breath delivered to the patient and allows backflow of anesthetic gas into the operating suite. Re-inflation of the balloon increases the ever-present risk of over-inflation, which can lead to tracheal injury.
Therefore, a need exists for improved endotracheal tubes that reduce air leak, reduce the chance of over inflation, and reduce the likelihood of injury to the patient being intubated.